Fig. 5: Linear assembly of NHE induces K⁺ efflux and activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

a Immunoblot analysis of caspase-1 of WT BMDMs left untreated or LPS-primed and assessed 3 h after treatment with binary combinations of NHE, or after treatment with tripartite NHE. b Release of IL-1β and IL-18, and death of WT BMDMs as treated in a. c, e Immunoblot analysis of caspase-1 of WT BMDMs left untreated or LPS-primed and assessed 3 h after treatment with NHE component added in various orders. d, f Release of IL-1β and IL-18, and death of WT BMDMs as treated in c and e. g Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry analysis of intracellular concentrations of K⁺ of BMDMs left untreated or LPS-primed and assessed 2 h after treatment with NHE, or 30 mins after treatment with ATP. h Immunoblot analysis of caspase-1 of WT BMDMs left untreated or LPS-primed and assessed 3 h after treatment with NHE, or 30 mins after treatment with ATP, in the absence (−) or presence (+ ; 50 mM) of extracellular KCl. i Release of IL-1β and IL-18, and death of WT BMDMs as treated in h. NS, not significant, ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001 (one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple-comparisons test b, d, f, and g or student’s unpaired t test i). Each symbol represents an independent experiment b, d, f, g, and i. Data are representative of three independent experiments (n = 3 in a–i; mean and s.e.m. in b, d, f, g, and i). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.